BeWeather brings its pretty face, forecasts to iOS

BeWeather started as a BlackBerry app before being ported over to Android a couple of years ago, and earlier this week it arrived for iOS. BeWeather is free but some features are held back until you upgrade with a $2.99 in-app purchase to the Pro version. Even the free version, however, has the good looks and some useful features that may make you stray from The Weather Channel's app or Yahoo Weather.

Screenshot by Matt Elliott/CNET

After launching BeWeather and letting it access your location, it will ask you to select from one of three themes: a static image, an animation that depicts your current conditions, or a radar map of your location.

Screenshot by Matt Elliott/CNET

From the home screen that shows the current conditions, you can swipe up for an hourly forecast and a seven-day forecast. Swipe up again for more detailed weather stats -- wind speed and direction, moon phase, barometer, humidity, visibility, UV index, and dew point -- and a detailed forecast for the current day and night, as well as the next day and night. In snowy New England, I particularly like the ability to toggle between precipitation probability plus amount by tapping on the seven-day forecast. Most weather apps give only the probability, leaving me to wonder or search elsewhere for the number of inches an approaching Nor'easter is expected to bring.

Screenshot by Matt Elliott/CNET

From left to right, the four static buttons at the bottom of the screen let you share your current conditions, read weather alerts for your area, view a radar map, and view a map of nearby weather stations or webcams. The radar map includes a play/pause button and a slider so you can see, for example, an approaching storm in motion. Unlike The Weather Channel app, you can see only past movement and not a future forecast.

Screenshot by Matt Elliott/CNET

BeWeather would look wonderful on the iPad, but unfortunately it's only optimized for the iPhone. The free app also limits you to two locations. The Pro version lets you add an unlimited number of locations, along with other features, including notifications for weather alerts, the current temperature as a badge on the app's icon, the current weather as a notification on the lock screen, and precipitation forecasts from DarkSky.